US wants to force partner countries to choose between Washington and Beijing in the AI race

The US is drafting a letter to partner countries telling them to pick a side in the AI standoff between Washington and Beijing, according to Reuters. A State Department draft reviewed by Reuters warns, "To be part of everything is to be part of nothing." Countries that join China's AI initiative would be shut out of the US-led Pax Silica coalition.

Washington launched the initiative last year to secure supply chains for AI models, semiconductors, and critical minerals. About two dozen countries have signed on, plus the EU. Kazakhstan is so far the only known country to belong to both the US coalition and China's competing framework. It holds large reserves of critical minerals that matter for high-tech and AI supply chains.

In July, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the rival World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, which promotes China's open-weight AI models as an alternative to US systems from OpenAI and Anthropic. China's embassy in Washington pushed back on the US plans, saying such moves would slow global AI progress and serve no one's interests.

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